Lori Boyer -- on the budget.

[sheclown]

Dear Friends,

As a member of the Finance Committee I am up to my eyeballs in budget. The Auditors identified an overstatement of revenue, an understatement of expenses and a number of other issues that ultimately meant not only did the Mayor's budget propose to use $37 million of one-time reserves, but we had to come up with another 20 million or so in cuts to make ends meet. We started by freezing the number of employees at last year's level and have adopted last year's level of spending on grant funds and most departmental budgets. The positions that have been cut were proposed year over year increases with the exception of positions that have been vacant for over 150 days and other positions eliminated at the request of Departments. There are stories that we have cut Legal Aid, but what we did was hold funding at last year's level. There are reports that we cut funds for Clara White- what we did was keep Public Service grant funding level with last year. The PSG Council scores the grant requests and awards the funds and they did not score Clara White as high as other applicants this year. We got the gap down to about 11 million dollars when we ran out of time and ideas Friday afternoon and agreed to fill the remaining hole with an across the board 2.45 % cut in the budget. Within a Department, they could achieve that by reducing the number of employees, reducing salaries, cutting programs, or however they see fit to reach the overall reduction. Perhaps between now and ultimate adoption of the budget later this month, other suggestions for cuts will be made that are specific in nature and reduce the amount of the across the board cut.

So why didn't we just use reserves as the Mayor proposed? Remember, the proposed budget he gave us used every penny of last year's tax increase PLUS $37 million of reserves. He may say he opposes a tax increase, but instead of finding ways to save in his operations, he gave pay raises to Department Directors and promoted staff. Using reserves or savings to bridge the gap would be like budgeting to use your rainy day savings (that you were setting aside for when your car or AC breaks down) to pay your electric bill every month. Eventually the savings run out and they turn off the power. Sure, we may have more revenue next year, but just like you hope to get a bonus at the end of the year to pay back the savings account, it may not happen and even if it does, your monthly budget next year still is higher than your paycheck. Using reserves only digs a deeper hole for next year's budget. It is inconceivable that the potential increase in revenue, without a tax increase, will cover increases in uncontrollable expenses AND the extra 37 million that current year expenses exceeded current year revenue as proposed.

That got me thinking about next year's (2015/16) budget and management of our expenses. One of those expenses is debt service- the principal and interest payments we make on money we borrow. When I realized that the Mayor's proposed new borrowing came with an increase in annual debt service of $30 million for the 15/16 budget- I knew we could not keep going down this path. Talk about kicking the can down the road! For more on borrowing and the budget, see the article posted on that topic by clicking on the link to the right.

On the campaign front, I want to thank everyone who volunteered on the August 26th Election Day, to help me gather petitions for qualifying, and all of you who signed petitions. It turned out to be a great day, I got to speak to many of you, and appreciate all the support and compliments! I also had a nice showing at HobNob, the event sponsored by the Chamber and WOKV, where I received 79.2% of the vote in the District 5 race. I plan to start door to door later this month and am always looking for volunteers to walk with me. If you want a little exercise, contact Gaye at 398-0112 or email team@loriboyer.org.

Thank you all again for this opportunity to serve as your District Council Member.

Warm Regards,

Lori

P.S. For updates on many other issues and upcoming events check the website   www.loriboyer.org.  Please forward this newsletter to your friends and neighbors and encourage them to subscribe.

[Noone]

Thanks for sharing this.

[Dog Walker]

Ms. Boyer is one of the smartest and probably the hardest working member of the Council.  We are very lucky to have someone of her caliber working for us.

[Tacachale]

Thanks for sharing this. A very well reasoned and well stated explanation of a complex issue. It's infuriating that the local media effectively passes over the budget crisis, it affects us all.

[Dog Walker]

The local media are not intelligent and hardworking.

[brainstormer]

This is why Lori should run for Mayor. Brown's "pie in the sky" budget just smacked him in the face.